come and ride away
by lismicro
Summary: Post Season 4 finale, Copdoc. The Fae have put a bounty on Lauren Lewis's head. What matters is who's going to collect.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Rated T for language, will eventually be moved to M.**

* * *

The Fae world exists on the physical sphere alongside the human one. The One Rule seems so beaten into the minds of every Fae that they forget it sometimes, in their haste to keep themselves and their kind hidden and therefore safe. But sometimes at night, in the seediest parts of the cities, those boundaries begin to blur, and well- the Fae come out to play.

A vampire, drunk on the alcohol-laced blood of the club patrons, stumbles out of a rowdy nightclub, the noise suddenly cutting off as the door swings closed. He barely makes it three steps before he hears a click, and something whizzes out from the alleyway. He hisses, takes a step forward, and collapses to the ground.

A tiny dart, the size of a fingertip, protrudes from his back.

A figure seems to melt out of the shadows, stepping carefully over his prone body and crouching a safe distance away, as long blonde hair spills out across her shoulders. The woman extends a gloved hand and quickly prods the body. When there is no response, she draws a hand mirror from her bag and holds it at an angle to the vampire's head. A grim smile replaces the look of apprehension on her face as she looks down and sees his reflection.

Then she, and the mirror, and the dart, all disappear again like they never existed.

When the Fae police arrive, a bearded wolf-shifter climbs out of the first car. He takes one sniff of the air and knows exactly the person he should be looking for.

* * *

She drinks.

It doesn't matter what, as long as it's strong; Tamsin's lost count of the number of glasses stacked in neat rows, three deep, in front of her. Whiskey, scotch, some green concoction that might be fairy mead and might be moldy beer. But it ignites and burns her from the inside out as she swallows, so to hell with identification.

This bar- dank, smelly, and rife with smoke – easily ranks in the bottom five of the worst bars Tamsin's ever been to in her many lifetimes. It's not just the atmosphere; as Tamsin looks around, vision beginning to blur as the alcohol sinks into her system, she sees bodies slumped across tables and chairs, dragging themselves to the door, pouring another drink. Lacking strength, and sobriety, and hope. This is a broken place full of broken people, and that's exactly the kind of place Tamsin is looking for, but even this is better than the place she's made it out from.

Tamsin squints at the clock; it's two already. She has another hour before she needs to be back on the road.

She flips through her wallet, decides she has enough, and the bartender pours her another shot. Tamsin downs it and tries to stop thinking.

But she can't.

They had tried so hard. After Kenzi died, the world seemed to darken, and it became a race against time (and a distraught Bo) to find the second Helskor and maybe, just maybe, to get her back. There was no time to rest, no time to grieve, and no moments of preparation before beginning the terrible task of getting to Valhalla. It fell to Tamsin, in all her Valkyrie wisdom, to take the lead, and she remembers standing in front of those impenetrable gates, and realizing that there was absolutely nothing she could do.

Tamsin rubs wearily at her eyes, trying and failing to swallow the lump in her throat.

They'd successfully found the second shoe, and fought off the spirits battling for their souls in the endless domain of the dead, and finally seen Kenzi, exactly as she'd been when she died, standing alone against a backdrop of Valhalla's endless expanse. There had been joy, for a moment. There had been celebration.

But wearing the Helskor meant you could enter Valhalla. It didn't mean you could bring anyone back.

In the end, even Dark Bo couldn't get her back, blue eyes shining out from the black smoke that enveloped her, driven to frenzy by the realization that for the umpteenth time in her life, she was powerless. They could see Kenzi but not touch her, not speak with her, and whatever little comfort they find seeing her again quickly turns sour.

They should have left it alone. As Tamsin and Dyson hid behind the nearest ghostly tree, helpless against Bo's wrath, they get their last glimpse of Kenzi walking calmly through the chaos. For a moment, she swears she sees Hale alongside the little thief. She says goodbye.

They blamed Tamsin anyway.

Of course they blamed her. Perhaps it wasn't her fault completely; she hadn't sought out Bo's father, hadn't wanted to take the Wanderer's contract to hunt Bo down, hadn't fulfilled the terms of that contract. But she had made a lot of fucking mistakes, mistakes that still linger in the minds of everyone she knows, and the fucking wings on Tamsin's back can't get her through Valhalla and back with Kenzi, no matter how she wishes they could.

They blamed her because they couldn't blame Bo, completely defeated by the loss of her sister. Because you can't blame a lonesome wolf, or a human doctor, or even a Blood King for something as ubiquitous and inevitable as death.

Tamsin is a Valkyrie, a maiden of Odin. Death surrounds her. She's supposed to be able to control it.

Things began to fall apart after that. Bo was yanked out of whatever grieving period she was allowed to have in order to become the bridge between the Fae, the negotiator between the sides. She was growing stronger every day, inspired in no small part by her father, and Trick was teaching her to navigate the complexity of Fae politics as only a Queen would need to know. Because it was obvious now that Bo's presence would change the nature of the fae and of humanity, and through all the agendas and personalities hovering constantly at their door, eager to get into the new Queen's graces, there is precious little time to do anything else.

This is a situation where there are winners and losers. The winners are Dyson and Bo, who somehow bury themselves in enough work to drown out the pain of losing Kenzi a second time. The praise of the Fae certainly don't hurt, and Bo soon falls as naturally into her place in the Fae hierarchy like she was never at the bottom of the ladder.

The losers? Tamsin.

Well, Tamsin and Lauren.

A commotion at the door startles her out of her reverie and Tamsin lifts her head from the cocoon of her arms, turning to the source of the noise. She knows before she sees him, before he sees her, that this cannot end well.

Still, she stays where she is, raising her hand for another drink before a familiar body sits in the seat next to her. He's too close for comfort, and Tamsin's teeth grind together as she shifts away.

"Get the fuck out of my face."

"Tamsin-"

"_Now_, wolf, before I finish what I started and neuter you for good."

Her knuckles still ache from the last time she'd seen Dyson, arguing with her as she stowed her belongings into her truck. He had called her a coward, a quitter, and she wasn't about to take that lying down. She might have broken his jaw, actually. It's a pity she didn't.

When they returned from Valhalla, Dyson began to disappear into the forest for long stretches of time, coming back filthy and ragged with exhaustion but with a clear head. He still smells like that now, pine sap and sweat. Tamsin wrinkles her nose.

"I didn't come here for revenge, or to try to get you to come back." Dyson says. He eyes Tamsin's row of glasses with a critical eye. "No one sent me."

"Bullshit."

"I'm serious."

Tamsin scoffs.

"Why are you here then?"

Dyson looks around quickly, eyes jumping from one patron to another, but no one's bothering to listen in. No one's bothering, period. He leans in so close his beard tickles Tamsin's ear.

"I'm here about Lauren."

The name takes her a little by surprise. Of all the things Dyson could have tracked her down for, this was the last thing she expected.

Lauren left before Tamsin had. After all, humans couldn't enter Valhalla, and the doctor had no skills to offer in the search for the second Helskor or the journey to the underworld. Tamsin can only wonder how troublesome that must have been for someone like the doc, who valued helping others more than helping herself. So as months had passed searching for Kenzi, Bo and Lauren had suffered as much as any other relationship would, given that much stress. When they returned with empty hands, Bo locked herself away from the world for a time, ignoring every attempt to get her out. Finally, Tamsin had slunk at the Dal one evening, already the pariah of their group, and seen Lauren's meager bags packed at the entrance of the bar.

Bo hadn't stopped her. Maybe she had thought Lauren simply needed a break. Maybe she thought Lauren was joking.

But Lauren didn't come back the next week, or the next, and when they finally did a search for her the doctor was long gone. Tamsin didn't wait around to see the aftermath of that latest tragedy. She followed the doctor's example the following day.

"So she came to her senses and went back to Bo, did she? Good for the doc."

Dyson shakes his head.

"She hasn't come back. Lauren hasn't been seen since she disappeared."

"What's wrong, then?"

Dyson takes a deep breath. Tamsin watches his beard quiver and his jaw work furiously around his words.

"The Fae have put a bounty on her head."

The glass almost splinters in Tamsin's hand as she stiffens, immediately, and her mind suddenly stops focusing on how to get away from Dyson and to the crisis at hand.

_What?_

"Are you fucking kidding me? Why the hell would they do something like that?"

Dyson sighs and passes his hand over his eyes.

"Do you remember the serum that Lauren tricked Evony into taking, the one that could turn a Fae human?"

Tamsin nods. She had admired the doctor, albeit grudgingly, for that. It took a lot of fucking guts.

"We've found three Fae who have also been turned. A vampire, two red caps. They were injected by dart gun, apparently, and are now in quarantine at the hospital. They were definitely Fae before they were found, and we found no connection between them other than that. But it's not coincidence, and it's not Fae."

Dyson takes something from his pocket and places it on the table. It's a tiny hypodermic needle, a type Tamsin's seen before at the Light Fae hospital.

Shit.

"How do they know it was Lauren? It could have been a psychopath like Taft, like any one of the nutjobs we've put away. Or a Fae hell-bent on getting revenge on someone, who the hell knows?"

"It matched the serum in Evony's bloodstream, down to the impurities they found in the single batch of the formula. No one but Lauren has the knowledge of the Fae required to make a one-size-fits-all weapon like this, apparently. Combine that with the fact that she's gone and in hiding, and they put the obvious pieces together. Besides, I smelled her at one of the crime scenes. It's Lauren without a doubt."

Tamsin pulls air deep into her lungs and thinks hard, wringing her hands together as her mind races. She doesn't have a clue of what to do.

"So, what now? They're going to hunt her down?"

"They're not going to kill her, at least. None of the fae scientists can find a cure to reverse the effects of Lauren's serum. All Lauren's computers, notes, equipment- they were all wiped clean. We found all her physical notes erased or burned. There's nothing left."

Tamsin nods silently. Of course Lauren would cover her tracks. Dyson clears his throat.

"So when they find her, they need her to tell them how to cure it. But if they don't get the answers they want, then-"

"They'll torture her until they do." Tamsin says, flatly. She chews the inside of her cheek for a moment, then looks over at the dejected wolf next to her in sudden inspiration. "But Bo will stop them, right?"

"Bo's powerful, but she's not that powerful. She can't be everywhere at once. This peace we're creating, this alliance between Light and Dark; Bo can't take on their combined armies, if it came to that. She's a powerful woman, but she's not a goddess."

"She'd find a way. She'd do anything to save the doc."

Dyson shakes his head.

"You believe that, and Bo believes that. But there may not be anyone to save, if the Fae get to her first."

Tamsin shakes her head slowly, scrolling through a list of every murderer or revenge-seeker she's ever come across (which makes up pretty much everyone she knows), looking for a motive. Cross-species attacks, though, she's never considered. What made Lauren Lewis tick was a mystery to everyone except Lauren Lewis.

"No, hold on. Lauren's been an asset to them for years, they've sacrificed their own to keep her in Light Fae employ. If she wanted to kill off the Fae she could have helped Taft. She could have put whatever that serum is into the water or something. Why her? And why now?"

Dyson shrugs. He's thousands of years old but this is the first time he betrays that age, the dark crescents under his eyes visible even in the dark of their surroundings.

"We don't know her motives, or why she's doing this. To the Fae, it looks like a human has just declared war on our kind, Tamsin. They're throwing every resource they have at her, and even Lauren can't run forever. Bo wouldn't risk a species war to save one woman."

Somehow, all roads lead to Bo.

Tamsin snorts and leans back against the bar, elbows pressed against the wood. She needs some stability now, and suddenly the decision to get roaring drunk doesn't seem like a good one. By all rights, she should be on the road by now, moving on to a place as far away from here as possible. Is she seriously considering diving back into the cesspit she left?

"You're wrong. You know Bo."

Dyson hesitates but nods, acquiescing. They both know Bo would give up the entire fucking universe to save Lauren.

"That's the worst case scenario. World War Fae."

She tilts her head up and closes her eyes, sighing.

_What are you doing doc? Why are you being so fucking stupid?_

"Why are you telling me all this? If it's inevitable that the doc's doing to be caught and killed, what difference does it make if I know about it?"

Dyson leans forward and puts his hand over Tamsin's; she draws it away.

"The best outcome here- the only outcome where Lauren ends up alive and the Fae stay hidden- is that she turns herself in and the elders have mercy. They'll punish her, but we could force some leniency from them in exchange for the cure. Send her into exile, wipe her memories, maybe. But that we can work with. There's a chance for forgiveness, but she needs to be there to ask for it."

"But the doc's never going to give herself up."

"Right. So we need someone to convince her." He's avoiding her eyes. Hell, he's not even trying to be subtle.

"Forcibly." Tamsin says, slowly coming to a realization that makes her want to throw up right there at the bar.

"Right again."

It's impossible.

But Dyson just won't stop.

"We need you to bring her in. Find Lauren and bring her back."

Inconceivable.

"_Fuck no."_

"You're a Valkyrie, Tamsin. You were the greatest bounty hunter the Fae had ever seen in your previous cycles. If anyone can find Lauren, it's you."

"I don't give a shit who I was in an earlier life." Tamsin hisses, lunging forward to come nose to nose with Dyson's stern face. How dare he bring up the life she wishes she could forget. The fury boils up inside her, inescapable but for the clenching of her jaw and her fist inches away from his solar plexus. She won't do it. She can't.

Dyson remains impassive.

"Who gives you the right, after everything that's happened, to come here and act like I'm some sort of mercenary who'll do anything you say? I'm not a bounty hunter now, for a good goddamn reason. Or have you forgotten the Wanderer that quickly?"

"Do it for Lauren."

"I don't give a shit about Lauren."

Something small and forceful in her conscience twitches at that, but Tamsin doesn't care.

"Then do it for Bo."

"What makes you think I give any more of a shit about the succubus?"

"Because you love her."

Her traitorous heart pounds faster at that word, love, and the word Bo, and now she's realized she's never said those two words in the same sentence. Tamsin considers smashing a beer bottle against and nearest wall and is holding it against Dyson's throat. She can already see his Adam's apple bob against the edge of the glass. But the wolf isn't reacting the way she expects him to. If she actually did threaten to cut his throat out, she has a feeling Dyson would let her.

He doesn't want to be here. That much she knows.

"Bo was the reason I left, dog-breath. She's the reason I'm fucking lost, that I'm not the Valkyrie I was before. You know what she said to me? That everything with her father, with Kenzi, Valhalla- that it was my fault she died. That fucking bitch."

Her voice shouldn't be cracking. Why is her voice cracking?

"She was angry. When we couldn't bring Kenzi back, you know she lost herself for a while there. It's the reason you're gone, and the reason Lauren's gone, and she regrets it, I promise you." Dyson is even more somber now as he remembers, his hands clasped tightly together. "She wasn't thinking straight."

"I didn't know it was impossible." Tamsin spits, bitterly. "I fucking lost Kenzi too, and I'm the one that had to take her to Valhalla in the first place. You think I haven't beaten myself up about my part in all this? I don't need the succubitch to do it for me."

"You've seen Bo. When she gets-"

"- she gets dark and twisty, she freaks the fuck out. Yes, I know. But that's not any fucking consolation." Tamsin sits back down, breathing hard. "Do you really fucking think Bo is going to take kindly to me dragging her girlfriend back here, kicking and screaming, to turn her over to the elders to do fuck knows what with her?"

Dyson squirms in his seat as Tamsin looks on. He takes a deep breath, running a hand through his hair, and closes her eyes before replying.

"Bo doesn't know."

Of Dyson's sins, this is the worst.

"_What the hell_?"

She's running out of expletives to fling at him.

"If she knew we were sending someone after Lauren, she'll stop them. She thinks Lauren can make it on her own, that she can keep running. Bo would keep her away if she thought it would keep Lauren safe. She's blinded sometimes by her need to save everyone, but she can't save Lauren this time."

Tamsin shakes her head incredulously.

"How can you up and betray the doc like this?"

"Goddamn it, Tamsin, I'm trying to save her!" Dyson finally lets loose and slams his fist down on the bar, his face losing its resolve for the first time. He finally looks at her head-on, and Tamsin is transfixed by the emergence of tears in them. This from a man who had once wished for Lauren's disappearance in all their lives.

Funny how these things go.

"You haven't been around for months, Tamsin. You don't know how hard Bo's been trying to keep everyone together. You think Bo wants to stay in the place where Kenzi died and you and Lauren left? You think I want to be caught between Bo and the Council? Nobody wants this. But no one can help but you."

Tamsin is a strategist at heart; she begins to assess her options almost immediately, analyzing and rearranging everything she's been told.

Save the doctor, save the world.

"This is fucked up."

Dyson doesn't say a word.

"This is completely insane. You don't even know if I can do it."

"I have faith in you. I wouldn't ask if I knew any other way."

Tamsin lets the weight of this responsibility settle down on her shoulders, thinking back to every moment she'd shared with the doctor. They are few and far in between; Lauren had been competition as much as she had been an ally to Tamsin. No matter how this ends, she and Lauren will remain where they started: losers. Tamsin is only pouring more gasoline on the tinder that their lives have been reduced to. The match is about to be struck.

But she could save Lauren. Save Bo in the process, and maybe even herself.

Her shaking hands pick up the much-abused glass in front of her, eyeing the few drops of liquor left.

"Where do I start?"


	2. Chapter 2

It doesn't take as long as Tamsin had hoped.

Lauren is a slippery thing, more resourceful than half the Fae Tamsin knows, and she had expected a lot. There are clues that Dyson can give her, but they are few and point only to dead ends that Tamsin knows the doctor planned. At least, the various booby traps and attempts on Tamsin's life are a clue.

A small microbe on one of the darts leads her, fruitlessly, to Guatemala. Laboratories in Geneva and Zurich make the darts that Lauren uses, rare in human hospitals, but she is in neither of them when Tamsin goes to investigate. She checks Lauren's childhood home, her workplaces, even Lauren's station in Afghanistan.

She barely escapes each time. No Lauren.

But it's alright. Tamsin expected a challenge. Against all her reforms, she feels the familiar shiver run through her at each new lead, the taste of adrenaline on her tongue when the doctor fools her again. There are traces of Lauren everywhere, fresh ones, and as she continues to strike the possibilities off the list, Tamsin knows that she's close.

In the end, it takes Tamsin three months to find Lauren.

Nadia's grave is in a remote part of California, where her family had lived for generations, and is discoverable only by walking off the beaten path and into a forest unmapped by man or Fae. Lauren's car is so cleverly hidden Tamsin has to fall into a ravine to discover it. When she's done cursing and wiping the mud off her face, she looks up at the stone angel marking the entrance to the cemetery and rolls her eyes. Humans. So damn dramatic.

But at least she understands the need to reconnect with the dead. She went by Kenzi's grave sometimes, to wipe fallen leaves off the gravestone, but eventually she stopped. There's nothing there for her, only the memory of her friend and a dead girl in the ground.

When Tamsin finds Lauren, the woman is standing on the grass, her fingertips touching the stone. She's completely exposed, detectable by any Fae in a one-mile radius, but she doesn't seem to care.

Tamsin watches her, sees her chest rise and fall, and finally speaks as Lauren's hand drops away from Nadia's name.

"It's your sentimentality that will kill you in the end, doc."

Lauren jumps, but doesn't turn around. Instead she speaks, her voice a slow drone, devoid of emotion.

"How did you find me?"

"You made a mistake." Tamsin says. She watches Lauren carefully for any sudden movements. "I hunted down the Norn you blackmailed for your cloaking spell. She's under the Light Fae's protection now. When they promised that you couldn't get to her she was up and talking so fast, they had to force her to slow down. A privilege that you had once, doc."

"Don't I know it." Lauren says, bitterly, and slowly turns to face Tamsin.

She has aged. She's been gone for less than six months but it seems like years have been added to the bags under her eyes, the lines on her brow, and the humorless smile on her face. It might have been Bo or it might have been Kenzi; Tamsin isn't sure who made the doctor smile more in happier times, but those days have long passed. She's seen firsthand how grief transforms people, but it's still disconcerting to see this hardened, grim Lauren take the place of the confident know-it-all Tamsin is accustomed to. The sleeves of Lauren's leather jacket are worn to shreds. A gun rests on her hip.

"What did they promise you to hunt me down, Tamsin? Did Trick put you up to this? Or was it Bo?"

The succubus's name charges something between them.

Lauren knew of Tamsin, of Bo and Tamsin, of the undeniable attraction that existed whether Lauren cared or not. She did, of course, and Tamsin figures she still holds a grudge over Tamsin's role in one of she and Bo's many rough patches.

But the doctor got the girl. She always had the girl. Tamsin will take whatever she can get.

"Neither. It was Dyson."

A flicker of betrayal breaks the mask of Lauren's face.

"I never thought Dyson would be the one to turn on me. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. New era of the Fae and all; down with those pathetic humans, right? I suppose I should be happy that I'm not dead."

"Not dead yet." Tamsin corrects, keeping one eye on Lauren's gun while moving closer. Her own pistol is out, and her inner Valkyrie braced for combat. This can't be that easy. "You caused a lot of trouble at home with your concoction, doc. The Fae are terrified that they'll all be turned in their beds. So, there's quite a demand for one Lauren Lewis, you understand."

"I'm not Lauren Lewis." Lauren says, calmly. "I'm not the woman I was before the Fae destroyed my life."

"You could have been." Tamsin replies, close enough now to see the doctor's hands shake as she lifts them up in surrender. "Now drop the gun."

Under Tamsin's watchful eye, Lauren unfastens the gun from its holster and places it in front of Tamsin, who kicks it harmlessly away.

"And just so you know, doc, Dyson cares about you more than I do. He has this wild hope that if I bring you back to him, he can bargain for your life with the Fae elders, get them to show mercy. There's a lot of things the Fae need to know about your special formula, so that's your only bargaining chip right now. You should be glad that it's me and not one of the Fae's enforcers who found you."

"Glad!" Lauren suddenly laughs out loud, startling Tamsin so much she takes a step back. "What, glad that I'm not being beaten in a dungeon? Glad that the Ash_ only_ took my girlfriend and five years of my life I'll never get back? Glad that Kenzi's dead and Bo's lost because some goddamn horse spirit missed out on daddy-daughter time? There are fucking worse things than dying, Tamsin. You, of all the fucking Fae, should know that."

Lauren's lips curl into a disgusted look.

Tamsin actually winces. Hearing it out loud makes it suddenly real as the grass between them. But she can't show weakness now.

"You had a choice, Lauren. You had a life, and Bo, and you could have gone in peace if you wanted out. I don't fucking care about your relationship issues or whatever fucking happened to you before, but you always had a choice just to leave. Instead, you got some martyr complex and let it out on innocent Fae. What did you expect would happen? That the Fae would just sit back and let you ruin their existence?"

"The Fae give me a lot of credit." Lauren sneers. Her arms cross over her chest, and she stares down the barrel of Tamsin's gun like it doesn't exist. "Given how they treat their humans, it has to be really embarrassing for someone like me to be able to take them down, eh?"

"Try to take them down, you mean."

This isn't the kind doctor Tamsin remembers. Tamsin's hackles rise at this Dr. Lewis, who seems the enemy of the Fae all the elders think that she is. But no matter.

"Get on your knees." She says, and when Lauren doesn't move she lets slip a little of her inner Valkyrie, satisfied by the fear she sees on Lauren's face. The woman complies, and Tamsin quickly snaps a metal bracelet around her wrist.

"Tracking device." She says, as the doctor immediately begins to pick at it. "It's enchanted so only the holder of the key can take it off. That's with Dyson, and he can get it off once I take you back to him. If you ever try to escape, it can remotely cause you so much pain you'd wish you were dead. But he doesn't want you dead, he wants you back. What happens to you then is none of my concern."

"How do you know there's a cure?"

Tamsin hauls the doctor closer and as Lauren stumbles forward, Tamsin catches the briefest glimpse of fear in her eyes.

"I sure as hell hope there is, because your ass is riding on it. But if it doesn't exist yet, I suggest you tell me know, so I can make the end a lot less painful than they will."

She can't tell if Lauren believes her. She doesn't know if she could actually do it.

"There's a cure." As Tamsin lets her go, both of them heave a sigh of relief. "It's in my lab. I keep it locked up."

"Tell me where it is and I'll retrieve it. You're not going anywhere except my truck and back to the Dal."

Lauren rolls her eyes.

"Do you really think I would make it that easy? It requires a bioscan and a voice confirmation. As much as you wish you were me, you aren't. It'll self destruct if anyone but me goes in.

Tamsin growls and yanks Lauren up by the arm, roughly shoving the woman forward. "Fine. We'll go to your lab. But if you try one wrong move, I won't think twice about shooting you between the eyes. Dyson may have some sympathy for you, but I don't."

They somehow manage to both unlock Lauren's similarly-secure car, which is harder to do when Lauren has her hands cuffed behind her back. But Tamsin isn't letting her go for all the tracking devices in the world now, so they twist and turn until Lauren's fingerprint unlocks the door.

Tamsin cuffs the doctor to the passenger seat and starts the car with her keys.

The cemetery watches them go.

Lauren doesn't talk much on the car ride there, simply points out directions as Tamsin navigates through the narrow roads. Eventually Tamsin reaches a dead end, and they have to pick through the woods on foot to reach Lauren's hideout.

It turns out to be what looks like a small metal shack, dilapidated and forgotten by all except the worms. But as Lauren crouches, her hands newly released, she rummages around in the foliage and suddenly, a set of steps appear, leading down into the darkness.

Tamsin switches on a flashlight and peers down. A door shines silvery, and Lauren punches in some complicated code that makes it swing open with a hiss.

Tamsin follows the doctor down the steps, a hand on her arm at all times, and sees a nearly-bare room, a table covered in papers and several assorted bottles and syringes on the table. All are empty. The place looks abandoned.

"You were about to run." She mumbles.

"Pity I didn't get the chance." Lauren deadpans.

Tamsin makes a move to pick a beaker off the table, but finds Lauren's hands stopping her.

"I wouldn't step there." Lauren says. She prods something underneath the table, and the doors beep as something is turned off. Tamsin peers underneath it and sees a mess of wires embedded along the metal and running down into the floor. "Suicide mechanism. I installed some turrets and an escape pod here, all set to explode if a Fae touched them. Just a little added security."

Tamsin shakes her head and pushes Lauren further into the room. The place feels innately wrong to her, making her shiver to her bones.

Lauren is now fumbling with something on the wall, which upon further inspection turns out to be a keypad. Tamsin watches her closely, every movement catalogued and alphabetized in her mind.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance, doc."

"I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a murderer." Lauren says. Her deft fingers feel along the wall; she stops, presses down, and a secret compartment opens. If she wasn't aware of what the doctor could do, Tamsin would be impressed.

"Not anymore." she replies, cold. "Karen Beattie sure was."

Lauren vibrates with anger at that, but she doesn't try to retaliate.

"For what it's worth, the Fae I turned were all criminals. They treated humans worse than they treated animals. It was cruelty on a massive scale."

Tamsin's not impressed.

"Wow. Gone from playing doctor to playing God."

"That's not-"

"The Fae were Dark." Tamsin says, cutting her off. "They're justified in doing what they please."

Her conscience bristles when she thinks of Kenzi, the most important human in her life, but Tamsin brushes the stray thought away. No point in getting soft now.

But as Tamsin waits, Lauren makes no move to open the safe. Instead, she runs her fingers along it's ridges, muttering something under her breath. She traces the combination, spins it one or two times. All the while, the muttering continues. Eventually Tamsin reaches the limits of her patience and snaps.

"What the hell are you doing? Can you open it or not?"

Lauren slowly lifts her head to look at her.

"You know what still surprises me, after all this time?" she says. Her eyes are deadly cold. "How little attention the Fae give human medicine. They could learn so much if they would just respect what we can do."

Tamsin takes a step back.

"Doc-"

"The serum isn't a serum anymore."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tamsin demands, drawing her gun again. The skin on her face begins to tighten around her scalp, her eyes darkening in anticipation of an attack. Valkyries aren't caught off guard. She'll kill the doctor first.

Lauren looks up at the ceiling. Tamsin looks up too, quickly, but there's nothing there.

"It's airborne now. You've been breathing it in for the last five minutes."

It doesn't register for a brief second. Then Lauren levels her cool gaze at her.

"You're human, Tamsin."

Tamsin lunges, and Lauren swerves, but it's already too late; the pinpricks spread rapidly across Tamsin's body, burrowing into her body, invading her mind. The world grows darker, heavier, blurrier. Her limbs falter and she gasps for air.

Lauren steps back as Tamsin steps forward, the Valkyrie's punch going wide as she stumbles to keep her balance. Her knees buckle and give out. Voices from ages ago, screams and whispers and all manner of conversation buzz through her ears and into her skin, escaping like so much smoke in the air. Tamsin groans and clutches at her head.

An eerie, empty silence.

Her chest feels like someone has driven a spike through it, but Tamsin barely notices. Her Fae, when she reaches for it, _scrambles_ for it, is silent.

She is human.


	3. Chapter 3

Tamsin's going to kill her.

She is going to rip Lauren apart limb from bloody fucking limb, Bo be damned.

Tamsin's body may be human but she hasn't lost complete control of it, and in her blind rage she throws herself at Lauren with teeth bared and fists flying. But Lauren is ready, as she's been ready every other time, and Tamsin barely comes within arm's length before Lauren deflects her blow and lands one of her own, a hard right across Tamsin's face.

It's a hit that Tamsin would normally shake off. She'd usually laugh and incinerate whoever tried to land it. But her reflexes have ground down to a fraction of her usual speed, each muscle moving as if swimming through heavy water, so she doesn't even realize how slow she's going until it's too late.

Lauren's fist connects with Tamsin's nose.

_Crack!_

Tamsin reels back, her hands flying to her face. For a second nothing happens, but even as that thought finishes formulating, Tamsin's knees give out.

Shit, it hurts.

Tamsin chokes. A foul taste coats her tongue.

It hurts worse than Tamsin's ever imagined, more than she can bear, and she rocks back and forth on the flats of her knees. The pain comes in waves, endless and bottomless, coupled with the nauseating smell of blood. Tamsin's head spins, blurry spots appearing haphazardly in her vision. Her fingers graze the rapidly swelling bump, and she bites back a scream as fresh agony lances through her face.

"You broke my nose." She mumbles, watching in horror as blood begins to drip down her hands. All she can see is blonde hair through a haze of red. "You fucking bitch, _you broke my nose._"

"Breathe through it. It'll pass."

Lauren, panting, stands up slowly. Tamsin catches the glint of metal in her hand and suddenly scuttles backwards, putting the table between herself and Lauren. Her gun. In the momentary panic of losing her Valkyrie half, Tamsin had dropped her gun and now Lauren's finger is on the trigger, pointing it in her direction.

Fuck.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I had to do it."

None of her imagined worst scenarios can compare to this.

Tamsin lunges again, halfheartedly, but Lauren is faster. How the hell is Lauren faster?

"How the hell did you-"

"I was trained in hand-to-hand combat before I was deployed to Afghanistan." Lauren says, having remained amazingly calm as Tamsin had thrashed around the floor like a dying fish. The same calmness remains cast upon her now, even as Tamsin sits glaring at her from below. "They taught us to defend ourselves if we were ever under attack. No healer fae or hospital to patch _us_ up."

The doctor's grip on the gun loosens as she backs away, keeping her eyes glued to the former Valkyrie's every move. Tamsin somehow knows that Lauren won't kill her, won't shoot her if she can help it, but so long as she has that fucking gun Tamsin is effectively powerless.

Lauren lowers the weapon slightly, clearly unsettled by the amount of blood on Tamsin's hands. But she doesn't make a move to help.

"You goddamn- you fucking-"

Tamsin damns the doctor to the lowest pits of hell for doing this, something worse than killing her, far more irreparable than a broken nose. The only part of her that she values- the only part of her that's worth _anything_- it's fucking gone. She's fucking lost.

God help Lauren if Tamsin ever gets her hands around the doctor's neck.

Valhalla. Odin. Her blood and her sisters and her Valkyrie were supposed to be hers, always. No matter what happened, what mistakes she made, they were pieces that could never be taken from her. But not there's an endless chasm of emptiness that was once filled with everything that made her Fae, and as Tamsin manages to work past the pain radiating from her face, the terrible reality begins to settle.

She buries her head in her hands, overwhelmed with the loss of millenia. Tamsin barely bites back a scream as the void stretches out before her.

There is nothing she can do.

"I'm sorry, Tamsin." Lauren repeats, looking sadly down at her. Her fingers twitch and Tamsin draws a painful breath. "I had to stall, you didn't give me enough time. I swear I never wanted to have to do this. You understand."

Fuck understanding.

"You-" Tamsin hisses. She crawls, hands and knees, to the wall, where she braces and slowly hauls herself up. The pain has dulled into a hot sort of throb, and when she turns to face Lauren, it rushes up to her very eyes.

Stay calm. Breathe. Plan, then execute.

Neither of them move. Lauren appears to be holding her breath.

"I understand that you're going to go back." Tamsin finally says, heartbeat slowing as the adrenaline slowly dissipates from her system. It beats a pathetically slow pace, a human pace. She spits blood on the floor at Lauren's feet. "Dyson's tracking bracelet- if I don't show up with you, he'll know something went wrong and he'll go to the council. You're going to die if I have to kill you myself."

Yes. Yes, that was it. Dyson and the council.

Lauren just shakes her head, golden hair framed by the sun pouring through the lone window on the ceiling above them. If Tamsin didn't know better, Lauren would look like an angel.

"I never said I wouldn't go back."

"What?" Tamsin whispers, stunned.

"I told you, I just needed more time." Lauren steps forwards, glances briefly towards the door where her car is still parked, then down at the gun in her hands. No expression of anger or fear mars her face, only a look of intense concentration. Tamsin might as well be a houseplant for all the attention Lauren is truly paying her. "You're right that I didn't expect this," she continues, frowning as she jangles Dyson's tracking bracelet on her wrist, biting her lip. "But the outcome remains the same."

"What fucking outcome?"

Lauren takes one more look at the gun in her hands and then holsters it to her side, where her own pistol had been before Tamsin had tossed it away.

"One where I go back with you. Back to the Fae."

And despite her hatred for the doctor, Tamsin still shakes her head in confusion.

"Then what was this all for?" She demands, taking a step forward even as Lauren puts a hand to her side in reflex. "You turn all those Fae, you turn me, you fucking give up everything that matters- what the fuck is going on inside your head? _What the hell do you want_?"

She's screaming by the last word, her hands still braced against the wall for support. Being human is markedly different from being Fae; Tamsin's looking through an unsaturated lens, everything a little blurrier, a little dimmer, sensation dulled as if by a clumsy artist. Every instinct takes more thought, more effort. Tamsin feels like she's been drugged.

"I want amnesty for every human in Fae captivity. You release all of them- _all of them_- and any Fae that can live without feeding on humans is blood-bound to do so. No more human slaves, pawns, status symbols, no more discrimination in any avenue where humans and Fae have to interact. I want it done, and I want it done immediately."

Tamsin's mouth opens in shock.

"You know that's not possible."

"Then I release the serum into the air. I put it into the water, the soil, I feed it to every human being and every animal and till it into every tract of farmland and forest until there is not a place on earth where a Fae can exist." Lauren says, face stone. As if by an injection of steel, her pose straightens and she looks at Tamsin, through the blood and the tears on her face. Tamsin realizes that this is the first time they have faced each other as true equals, and the thought terrifies her.

Lauren has power she may not even know exists.

"You think I'm the only human the Fae have ever wronged, Tamsin? There's a resistance you don't even know about, because you never even considered us a threat. If anything happens to me, they will act. All they need is for me to give them the signal." She pauses for breath. "But I'm a fair woman. You give me what I want, and I'll give you my blood oath not to give them that signal."

Scratch that, Lauren definitely knows her own power.

"You can't do that."

"Try me."

"Bo will-"

Lauren doesn't so much as flinch.

"Bo can't stop science and she can't sacrifice herself or her love, not this time. Magic isn't infallible, Tamsin. And anyway, she grew up human. Being one again won't faze her as much as you think."

Tamsin's frustration breaks through her common sense.

"You're making a goddamn heap of assumptions here, doc." She growls. "Last time I checked, you were pretty human yourself. What's stopping me from putting a bullet in your head the next time you've got your back turned?"

"You're not going to kill me."

"How do you know?"

"The same reason the Fae won't kill me. Who else can make you Fae again? You kill me, you never get another life cycle. You stay human forever, and the rest of the Fae follow."

"What if I was willing to make that sacrifice?" Tamsin hisses.

"Then try your luck. I always liked the idea of being a martyr." Lauren begins to walk towards the entrance of the secret laboratory. "Either way, you're coming with me while I make some last preparations. Now, are you going to go easy, or am I going to have to force you?"

At that exact moment, a muffled ringing erupts from Tamsin's pocket, making both of them jump. Lauren draws the gun with incredible speed, immediately shrinking to the opposite wall in apprehension. The military woman in Tamsin can appreciate that, but ordinary Tamsin suddenly wonders if she's getting out of the room alive. Not if Lauren gets an itchy trigger finger, that's for sure.

No movement. No sound.

Then her pocket vibrates again.

Lauren sets a silent finger to her lips, and Tamsin doesn't dare exhale as the phone goes to voicemail.

"Tamsin?"

It's Dyson.

Lauren's face contorts with some unreadable emotion.

"I'm getting a signal that the tracking bracelet has been activated. Did you find her? Is Lauren there?" After a moment of Tamsin's silence, he sighs, crackly with static and exhaustion. "I guess you must've rolled over on it or something. Anyway, let me know once you get anything. Thanks and good luck."

Tamsin allows herself a little chuckle at Lauren's expense; the doctor is visibly agitated by Dyson's call, and as the phone falls asleep again, Lauren catches a harsh breath that sounds suspiciously like a sob.

That's all it takes.

With surprising speed, Lauren dashes forward and points the gun straight at Tamsin's chest. Tamsin takes a step back and, her throat aching with the pain of holding her breath.

"Call him back, right now!"

Tamsin doesn't move, and with a sudden growl Lauren points the gun right above Tamsin's head and fires a single bullet into the rock above. Tamsin drops hard into a crouch, covering her head with her arms as shards and dust rain down on her. Her entire body vibrates with the crack of the shot, inches above her head.

"_Now_, goddamnit!"

Tamsin moves an inch a second, slipping her hand in increments to her pocket, then raising the phone to her ear. She presses a button and waits for the tone, never taking her eyes away from Lauren's face.

Tamsin suddenly understands that unreadable motion that the doctor was sporting a few seconds earlier.

It's regret.

"Put him on speaker and tell him everything I just told you. Say nothing else."

Dyson picks up on the first ring.

"Hello-"

"Listen to me." Tamsin states, her voice steady. Her tongue grazes her lip with the words and she tastes the metallic tang of her own blood. "I don't have a lot of time."

She repeats Lauren's instructions, and lets Dyson exclaim his own fear and confusion on the other end. Tamsin can see him now, pacing agitatedly around his office, his hands cracking the casing of the phone, mind racing with Bo and Trick and hell, the fate of all of the Fae.

Tamsin's newly human heart aches.

Dyson stutters his last words.

"Tamsin, stay alive. Please just do as Lauren says, she has to come around eventually."

"I'll do my best." Tamsin says. Lauren doesn't react.

"I'm just- I'm so sorry. Tell her I'm sorry for what's happened."

At that, Tamsin watches Lauren visibly flinch. She looks away from Tamsin, to some spot far beyond the wall she faces.

Tamsin hangs up. She doesn't need to say anything, but she does anyway.

"Dyson says that he's sorry."

"A bit late for that now, isn't it?"

Tamsin can't help but agree.

Lauren shakes her head again, thin-lipped and pale even in the bright sunlight, and walks behind Tamsin. Tamsin doesn't dare turn around, but as the doctor crosses her vision, she notices that Lauren looks decidedly unhealthy up close, skin sallow and drawn tightly over her cheekbones. But that doesn't stop her from jabbing the gun hard into Tamsin's back, throwing her slightly forward.

"We're leaving."

Tamsin starts walking.


End file.
